Fear of rebels hold Cong, BJP from announcing list

BHOPAL: The ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh have not yet officially announced their candidates for the upcoming assembly elections for fear of rebellion amongst party ranks.
 
Both the parties, who had earlier said they would announce names of candidates two months before the elections, are busy finalising the list but have not officially announced a single name yet.
 
The main reason for this appears to be fear among the parties that unhappy candidates would leave to join other parties.
 
Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Gondwana Gantantra Party are ready to give tickets to rebels from the BJP and the Congress, sources said.
 
The BSP has already announced nominees for 130 constituencies, while the BJS for 20 constituencies. These nominations, however, could be changed at a later stage, sources said.
 
In December 2003 assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party had won eight seats of which five had been bagged by those who were denied Congress tickets. And now four of them have returned back to the Congress.
 
The ruling BJP faces strong opposition as people had expressed anger against ministers during the recent bye-elections held for Betul and Khargone Lok Sabha seats.
 
The extent of people's anger was such that BJP MLAs were not even allowed to enter in number of villages in Khargone district.
 
Both the parties are expected to take a final decision on candidates before Diwali, sources said.